As a newcomer, it is only appropriate to first extend my gratitude to both this website as well as the community therein. It is a privilege that here I am able to word my own thoughts and defend my own ideas. Just recently I have graduated high school where my ability to speak openly on my convictions and beliefs has never been more restricted. Hopefully I may hone my debate abilities without fear of punishment and with far better proponents and opponents than I have been accustomed to. I look forward to debating with the sincerest level of integrity and the highest level of intensity. On this note, I will now transition to the issue at hand: the legitimacy of the American Dream.

I believe the mere fact that this dream our Founders had must be debated is painstakingly unfortunate. That there are those among us who believe not only that it is no longer retainable, but that in it's entirety never existed. Let us begin first with examining prominent political contemporaries opinions of what the American Dream is. On the 20th of January, 2000, Bill Clinton stood before the nation proclaiming that, "When we make college more affordable, we make the American Dream more achievable." Thereafter, his predecessor, George W. Bush, declared the American Dream as homeownership when he signed into law the "American Dream Down Payment Act." It's important to recognize that both Presidents described the 'American Dream' as something we seek and must work to achieve. Respectively, it is equally important to identify how utterly wrong and far from the true American Dream both are.

Unique and before either Presidents' time, another contemporary American once had a dream that, not only changed the country in a profound way, but embodied the true American Dream. On August 28th, 1963, gathered around the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., Martin Luther King Jr. gave his ever famous speech declaring that, "[He] had a dream where his four little children were not judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Dr. King Jr. said these words not in order to create rights his children did not yet have, rather, he fought to defend the rights that they were born with under God. Clarifying, rights are something that cannot be created or granted lest we have no rights at all. This dream of Dr. King Jr.'s was not far off from that of the Founding Fathers. Respectively, the American Dream cannot be seen more clearly anywhere else than in America's very moment of creation. By the action of the Second Continental Congress, penned by Thomas Jefferson:

...We Hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of those Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying it's foundation on such Principles...

These words began a revolution that was unique and unknown to the treacherous history of man. Previous generations saw men revolt; they saw one despotic monarch replaced by another, an insolent autocracy replaced by another ruler. However, unlike all revolutions before, those Founding Fathers of ours thought that man had the capacity to forge his own destiny. The American Dream is to believe this truth: that because man lives, he deserves to live freely with his liberties recognized under God. The American Dream is the preservation of freedom and Liberty, which is seen in the words of John Adams in a letter to Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, "the dream for America, the Decree has gone forth, and it cannot be recalled, that a more equal liberty than has prevailed in other parts of the world, must be established in America." This is why the American Dream is not something that may be achieved as Clinton and Bush would have led one to believe: you cannot achieve what is already achieved.

To preserve this noble dream, Thomas Jefferson, in the same sentence, warned us of the greatest enemy it will face. He warned of the one certainty the Founders understood: that the Government can't control things, it can only control people. Whenever it attempts to control people, it almost always uses force and coercion to reach it's ends. James Madison in 1788, speaking to the Virginia Convention, warned that "since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." Thomas Jefferson similarly wrote in "A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge," that, "experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny..." Finally, Ronald Reagan, one of the greatest protectors of the American Dream, in his "A Time for Choosing" speech said that:

...We're at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it's been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent it's happening... [T]his idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the most unique idea in mans long relation between man... This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-governance or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant Capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves...

Our nations history may be short, but the actions of those who were apart of it changed the future history of the world in a way that will never be undone. In it's early years, Abraham Lincoln led the North to battle for the cause of freedom against their own countrymen. That same Grand Old Party in 1964 pushed through the Congress the Civil Rights Act despite the vehement opposition of President Johnson. Though even the most shrewd observers of American history know that the most remarkable fight to preserve this American Dream is found within our own time. When the greatest threat to freedom and Liberty arose, the greatest country in all of history fought back. On the 12th of June, 1987, two-thirds of the world gathered, listened and watched a man speak. All the while the other third of the world could be prosecuted for doing so. It was those who could listen that were free; and for that reason- for that cause, the American Dream was a dream that was not held by only Americans, but by countrymen claiming to many different flags. Barriers, armed guards and walls divided the continent of Europe, but not so much as to keep an enemy out, but rather it was keep those enslaved inside. This spectacle could be seen no more clearly than in Berlin, where East Berliners were separated from their fellow West Berliners. On the subject of the American Dream, no where in history is it more poetically illustrated: the free individuals of the world united against the will of a single man, who in his hands alone, controlled the fate of the remaining third of all souls. When President Reagan demanded Mr. Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," one can only remember when William Penn once said, "If we will not be governed by God, we must be governed by tyrants."

American's have forgotten that no matter the humanitarian message that is given, the government does nothing better nor more prosperous than a free people where the rights granted by God are recognized. Our government is larger than ever before in it's history and is beginning to control every aspect of our lives. Though, the belief in the American Dream will show that when the powers that be feel threatened, they will use all their strength to protect their God given rights. So while the dream may be fading, once the Americans realize what has happened to the land their forefathers conquered, it will be revitalized with a ferocity that has never been seen before by mankind. The American Dream is real and it must be preserved; should it not, there will be no place for the rest of the world to escape their chains from.

I would like to say that the American Dream is actually more like an excuse like some people use religion as an excuse. They all think of a perfect America which most people think is all white and this just causes racism to rise in the country. And also the American Dream is whatever you think it is, so one person can think one thing and another may think that it is all just an imagination. So I think that the American Dream is fiction.